This invention relates generally to riveting processes and systems, and more particularly concerns riveting method and equipment facilitating more rapid and efficient riveting with associated substantial reduction in noise levels.
At the present time there are many problems involved in the riveting of panels, as for example in aircraft fabrication. Among these are the requirement for the delivery by a rivet gun of a large number of blows or impacts to the rivet head, in order to gradually upset the rivet shank terminal, a so-called heavy mass or "bucking bar" being held against that terminal to form the upset. Not only is this procedure extremely noisy, but it also produces rapid oscillation of the rivet back and forth in the panel bore during the riveting process, which tends to gall the bore and remove anodizing on the rivet shank due to back and forth frictional contact of the shank with the bore. Further, the impact shock loading or hammering is repeatedly delivered via the rivet head to the work panels, tending to separate them slightly at their interface, and resulting in an undesirably loose riveted connection and/or buckling of one or both panels, in many instances. Additional problems include unwanted flattening and cracking of rivet heads, marring of the panels, so-called clinching of the upset and tipping or cutting of the driven head.